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Forum Discussion
Request: All files available offline by default
Moving the Mac to the new File Provider is great - very happy this is finally happening and support on the new M1 is much better. Kudos!
Feature request: Really miss the feature to have Dropbox default to making all files downloaded and available for offline open/save. I will always, 100% of the time, want Dropbox to keep all my selected-to-sync files to also be downloaded and available for offline use.
I know you can right-click to request offline availability, but this creates a bit of an unclear situation as you can't see by looking at a file in Finder whether it is supposed to be offline available or not. I want this to just be the way Dropbox works.
Since there is the option to do this on a per file / folder basis using right-click, seems likely possible for Dropbox to make this effectively on-by-default for every file, with the user doing the gesture.
Hi everyone, and thanks for your patience.
We're re-launching the option to choose the default status of synced files in the Dropbox desktop application (in the Preferences > Sync tab) for users of the newer File Provider version.
It should be available to you shortly. If you haven't received it yet, make sure to update your desktop app, and let us know if you have any questions!
A quick message of support for this feature request.
The cool thing with Dropbox has been that I could leave it running on my computers, and anything added to Dropbox on the desktop would automatically appear on the laptop (M1 MacBook Pro). A colleague could also drop in some files, and when I connect my laptop in the morning to check mail, all the files would come to it. Then I could pick it up and work on-the-go, be it in a cafe or a plane, or anywhere without internet.
But this is now broken.
Now it is necessary to go into Dropbox in Finder, right click each folder where files may have been added, and then wait. And hope I’ve waited long enough for everything to download.
And in some cases, it is needed to wait for the whole folder to resync, as what was previously available offline is now back to cloud only.
Which really defeats the purpose of using Dropbox on a laptop for those of us who need to access files without internet.
Ok, a bit more info. I think I'm seeing this new File Provider experience (that no longer shows the green Finder icons, and doesn't offer the "Offline by default option) due to having opted into the betas a while ago. I thought it was because I was on M1 Macs.
I have since setup other M1 Macs, including a new Mac Studio, and installed the stable 146.x build for ARM. On this and other newly setup Macs, after I opted out of the beta, I get a version of Dropbox that 1) has all the old UX, Finder green badges, and Offline all files options, and 2) still appears to be Apple M1 native. Yay! Also, does not appear to be using the new File Provider stuff (e.g. the location in CloudStorage instead of ~/Dropbox.)
Didn't know this combination was possible! My existing Macs that had run the beta and I moved back to stable still have the File Provider experience, even though they have the same version of Dropbox.
Is there a way to opt into the old experience for all Macs, so I can get the Offline by default feature?
Maybe all this is explained in that forum thread that we all get Access Denied when clicking? 🙂
Hi Tim T.13 . The ability to install a version of Dropbox that doesn't use FileProvider is something I desperately need. The FileProvider API has been an absolute nightmare, and it frequently freezes my whole Finder while trying to open a file. Also as you mentioned, even if I click "make available offline", files in the folder are frequently stored online again and this causes all sorts of problems, and even frequently freezes my whole Finder. How did you manage to install an old version of Dropbox? I didn't opt into the experimental features as I checked my user preferences on Dropbox, but this didn't seem to help. I tried to uninstall Dropbox even with an app cleaner, but even if I use an installer for v145 it still uses FileProvider!
DaveDropbox Staff
Thanks Dave, appreciate the reply.
But to make it clear this issue isn't on the visual indication that has changed in the beta. In the current beta implementation, if a user wants to make sure that all files are stored locally and available offline, we would need to manually select “make available offline” every single time a new file is added. Regardless on where it's added in the folder hierarchy.
This behaviour defeats to purpose of having a dropbox client app. Users would get the same experience (files are online-only by default) if you'd only give us access to our files via a browser with the ability to download.
Thanks again for the response, it is really appreciated! However, agreed that the feature request - which is how I had always used Dropbox - is to always sync all files and keep full, local copies of all of them on my disk.
This was clearly a key feature of the product for a very long time, and had a dedicated option in the preferences. Would just like to see it come back. If it is indeed planning to come back, I can probably wait a little while. If this is not how Dropbox intends to work in the future, then I'm not sure it will be meeting my needs.
Also note that I have been clicking "Make available offline" frequently, but for weeks of doing so, still don't have the files all local, and the Dropbox app appears to happily say that I am up to date and no need to sync. So even that behavior doesn't appear to be working as expected.
... and one thing to ask for clarification: how would I click on the Dropbox root? It is no longer a folder in Finder, but only a "location" in the sidebar. Right-clicking that location doesn't offer the Dropbox context menus. So I can right-click on folders within Dropbox, but not the "root" folder and described in this suggestion. Am I missing how to do this? Thank you!
The "Make available offline" option is not working recursively for me. So choosing it for a folder will make all files in that folder available-offline but not its sub-folders. So I have to select that option for each folder I have in Dropbox. I won't spend hours doing that, so I hope that bug is quickly fixed.
... and to be clear, as I've seen this in other threads, the URL pointed to in this thread gives an "Access Denied" message.
I don't understand why this keeps happening in these Dropbox Forums. Clearly these are threads meant to answer FAQs, which is great, so why are they access permissions blocking even logged-in forums users from reading?
This is the blocked link, which likely has some great info in it I'd love to read!
As far as I can tell the setting is still broken.
Unless...
I wonder, does "new files," in this case, only refer to newly added to dropbox, not newly selected for sync?
Just to clarify because its a little confusing, there are three statuses of a file,
1) Synced-Online only - Visible in the finder but only as a placeholder, not downloaded
2) Synced-Available offline - Visible in the finder and downloaded
3) Not Synced - Only exists in the cloud (on dropbox.com), not visible in the finder
So, I'll keep certain files in the cloud but not synced because I'm not using them in a current project, but then suddenly I need them, so I go into selective sync to download it to the device. Then, since the setting is broken I have to go back to finder, find that file, right click it and click it again to it make it offline. I know that's not the end of the world, but it does bog me down often, especially because the selective sync window is one that doesn't hide like others . It would seem this setting could only exist to solve this very problem. Unless, as I said, "new" means newly created, not newly appearing on this device.
Anyone at dropbox wanna weigh in?
Thanks!
P.S.
Btw, I don't really understand Synced-Online Only, anyway. Why do people want to see files on their finder that they can't open?
I obviously get the need to designate some files in an archive state i.e. cloud-only, and others actively in use. But maybe there's a certain workflow I'm not aware of?
I use Dropbox on my Mac and iPhone to keep important files synchronized. All the files stored offline on my Mac from day 1 when I used Dropbox. I can sync files and access them from my iPhone. I can also choose to store some of them offline on my iPhone as needed. It meets my needs with no problem.
With the recent update on Mac version of Dropbox, it changed the default option to have all the files on my Mac to be online. I manually downloaded them to my Mac but most of them were changed back to online again. I have to have internet access and download them every time when I need them on my Mac. This is QUITE INCONVENIENT for me.
I don't know if there is any way to set the default to keep all the files offline on Mac, which is as same as before. If not, I may have to move all the files out of Dropbox to use other backup / synchronize tools. Thanks.
- Megan
Hi jessywang, I hope you're doing well!
Currently, if you want to change all of your files and make them available offline, you can right click on your Dropbox content and select “make available offline”.
However, let's have a look at what you mentioned, about you making the content available offline, and that changing back to online-only. Which version of the app do you use on your end?
Also, it will sound trivial, but have you tried restarting your device and then applying the settings again?
Let me know more!
According to what I read, even if I apply the "make available offline" to all my dropbox folders (can you say pain in the ass?) it would only sync these folders when they are opened? Who thought this was a good idea! The beauty of dropbox was I DIDN"T have to manage the sync process. Also this is not only a Mac issue but the same issue on PC.
DROPBOX YOU NEED TO FIX THIS
Oh wow thanks for posting about this. I was wondering why I was having trouble accessing my own files on my own computer. Dropbox worked perfectly for me until this TERRIBLE change in the default WHICH I WAS NOT EVEN INFORMED ABOUT. I can't believe ALL MY DROPBOX FILES ARE NOW ONLINE-ONLY BY DEFAULT AND NOW I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD EVERYTHING FROM THE CLOUD. I absolutely HATE THIS and will cancel my account ASAP.
Edit. I'm sorry for the all caps, I'm just so upset. I can't believe Dropbox moved all my files to online-only without my consent. I live in a country where the internet is slow and expensive. Dropbox used to be my choice of sync provider because of its fast and reliable block level / differential sync function. Not anymore. Goodbye Dropbox, I'm downloading all my files then getting out.
I'm having the same issues. Now all of my files are online-only by default. Selective Sync used to be all we need to manage what was local or not. Now I'm looking for a dropbox alternative, but this completely broke the system. Random files in all my folders now go offline, for no reason it seems. How awful. Fix this **bleep**.
Navigate to the Dropbox folder (buried in user/Library/CloudStorage/Drobox), right click, and select 'Make available offline'.
I did that a couple of months back, then had to re-do it about a week ago as I noticed some files were not showing the 'green dot' indicating offline availability. Otherwise the functionality seems to be as in prior versions of Dropbox.
There is no such option at all in the recent beta builds on macOS. There used to be an option for "Online-only" or "Local" by default, but after the move to the macOS File Provider and native M1 support, that option is no longer in the UX.
This is a request to get that feature back.
I have the same problem. I also have a new MacPro with an M1 and opted for offline files choosing the Save hard drive space automatically "off". However, the files remained online-only. Would this be a glitch?
Love the beta otherwise (M1), but this is kind of a deal breaker. I am sure the issue can be resolved easily, the developers need to look into it.
It is convenient to have the ability to selectively sync (or keep online only) the files on a device like a phone or tablet. But the whole point of having a device (like a Macbook Pro) with tons of storage is to maintain all your data locally and to be able to access it offline.
